Please note this is an old page and Fly Global Music has now moved. Please follow this link and search for the entry in the new site.

So their name really does sum them up, I keep thinking The Kinks time-warped into a era of punk, indie, drum’n’bass, funk and rave culture but this concept mash-up doesn’t really do them any justice at all.

The previous singles, ‘Employee Of The Month’, ‘Bamboo Beats’, ‘Kid Riot’ and ‘Oldskool’ variously tweaked the hip-hop/indie rock antennae of Radio 1’s Jo Whiley, Edith Bowman and Huw Stephens and created a stir live where they’re notably supported in the past Dan Le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip, Lethal Bizzle, Ugly Duckling and even Grandmaster Flash!

The Anomalies are the core duo of Mouthmaster Murf (vocals/snyth) and Sam Meehan (vocals/guitar) with the addition of the turntables of DJ Mayhem, Peter Cooper (bass) and Joey Holmes (drums). Think something like Arctic Monkeys, Qemists, Dan Le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip and DJ Shadow all mashed up with various bits hanging out and you’ll get out tracks like on this album.

‘1830’ and ‘Creatures Of Habit’, two tracks equally as good as the past singles. ‘Employe Of The Month’ is very clever lyrically (and even slips in a bit of a trad jazz riff!) but you wonder where they get it all from as it is totally different from DJ Foodesque ‘Vibrations’ with the big drum beats meets Joe Meek. Anomalie style space ska-punk? Yep, they can cross that one off with ‘Margarita’ and Dresden Doll-folk, try ‘Jacobs Ladder’. And Reprise is like the Curved Air extended mix!

There’s a lot here to take in and I’m still not sure I can cope with the 80s-rock-electro-hip-hop of ‘Oldskool’. If Sunday Best and Ninja Tune were to ever merge, The Anomalies would be the house band. Without doubt these guys have ripped up the rule book and for that alone, we at FLY salute you. Definitely not the sort of thing you expect to come out of Hereford; and there’s another anomaly.

Reviewed: The Anomalies - Free Soup Special (Beyond Music) Released: 20th April 2009
Tracklisting:
1 Population (1:06)
2 1830 (3:50)
3 Creatures Of Habit (3:57)
4 Kid Riot (3:51)
5 Bamboo Beats (3:22)
6 Vibrations (3:36)
7 Employee Of The Month (2:54)
8 Margarita (3:36)
9 Blue Peter (1:52)
10 Jacobs Ladder (4:49)
11 Oldskool (4:16)
12 Reprise (7:13)

Forthcoming gigs:
03 Apr 2009 : Rainbow, Birmingham,
04 Apr 2009 : Dry Bar Manchester
08 Apr 2009 : Fibbers, York
09 Apr 2009 : Lab Bristol
10 Apr 2009 : Barfly, Cardiff, Wales
11 Apr 2009 : Riffs, Swindon, Southwest
13 Apr 2009 : Joiners Southampton www.joinerslive.co.uk
14 Apr 2009 : Barfly London
16 Apr 2009 : Ivory Blacks Glasgow, Scotland
17 Apr 2009 : Cockpit, Leeds

Links:
www.the-anomalies.co.uk
www.myspace.com/theanomalies